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Paola Randi’s coming-of-age drama “The Story of Frank and Nina,” which has its world premiere in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Extra program, has debuted a first clip (below). International distribution is being handled by Fandango Sales.

The synopsis runs as follows: “It’s up to Gollum to tell us ‘La storia del Frank e della Nina’ — only, he doesn’t speak, and has to write it on the wall. He’s the guardian of those words, the ones that can’t come out of his mouth, the ones he writes on buildings as if the city was a big amplifier.

“Frank has stopped existing a couple years back, but to make a living he sells homework outside of school. He’s waiting till he turns 18 to take the train and clear out. Frank’s version of reality is so compelling that we all believe him.

“Until he meets Nina.

Without Spike & Mike, two hippie friends from Riverside, California, who pioneered the animation festival in the late ’70s, the indie short wouldn’t have become the cultural phenomenon that has helped shaped the industry today. That’s the takeaway of the celebratory documentary, “Animation Outlaws,” directed by stop-motion animator Kat Alioshin (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”), available now on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu, Fandango Now, PlayStation, and Vimeo.

“Beyond anybody in the world, we stepped up and did it first, and premiered it first, and made it first — and that’s why the documentary is so important to me,” said Spike Decker, who first promoted rock bands and classic horror movies with the late Mike Gribble (who passed away from cancer in ’94) before segueing into animation festivals. Their “Spike & Mike’s Animation Festival” and the “Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation” (launched in ’90) made the art form “something more dangerous...

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The 18th Annual Animation Show of Shows Sva Theater, NYC

I became an animation fan -- a true aficionado -- early in life. It had little or nothing to do with children's shows on television (Hanna-Barbera, Speed Racer, Gigantor, et al), though I watched and liked most of them. Rather, it was probably when I first saw Fantasia (likely mid-1960s), and then The Jungle Book (1967) and (of course!) The Beatles' Yellow Submarine (1968). By that time, I was actively looking for good (or great) animation. I was not a fan of Disney (though I have a sentimental fondness for The Aristocats (1970)), and anime feature films did not become widely known in the U.S. until the 1980s.

So when I heard about something called the Fantastic Animation Festival in 1977, I made sure to check it out. Comprised of a series of 18 animated short films, it was exactly what animation aficionados were looking for.

That bad boy of (mostly) French cinema Walerian Borowczyk has been converting doubters into fans for sixty years, even though his pictures were never easy to see. Before he took a headlong leap into soft-core epics, he made some of the most creative and influential short films of his time — and they eventually became more erotic as well.

The Walerian Borowczyk Short Film Collection

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1959-1984 / B&W and Color / 1:66, 1:78 and 1:37 flat Academy / 144 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 24.95

Directed by Walerian Borowczyk

This release brings back memories of traveling short subject shows, usually several reels’ worth of experimental films that would tour college campuses. Even in High School I’d drag my girlfriend to the University of Riverside, where huge crowds looking for the ‘In’ place to be would stare in attention at hours of abstract visuals, expressing their approval...

Disney’s whimsical animated short, “Inner Workings” (playing in front of “Moana”), works like a quirkier “Inside Out” — a tug of war between logic and passion. It marks yet another innovative blend of CG and 2D, following the Oscar-winning “Feast” and “Paperman.” (Watch the exclusive clip below.)

Director Leo Matsuda takes us inside the cartoony body of a hapless clerk named Paul, whose brain nearly squashes his heart because of a neurotic fear of death.

Read More: How Four Animated Oscar Contenders Made the Cut for Disney, Laika and Illumination

“I’m a Japanese Brazilian, so I’m very disciplined, but I also like to party,” Matsuda told IndieWire.

At first, Matsuda toyed with the idea of using Disney’s Meander drawing program (introduced on “Paperman,” and the recipient of an Academy Sci-Tech award this year), but realized the paper texture look wasn’t appropriate. So he decided on CG...

I Via Curiel 8 (Magda Guidi & Mara Cerri, 2011)If someone asked me to make a list of the most interesting recent Italian productions made in the 2010s, there is no doubt that some of these titles would come from the field of independent animation. If I had to explain this choice, I would simply answer that there is nothing surprising in it. We may not have a new Bruno Bozzetto yet—a pioneer of the modern animation cinema in Italy, author of a milestone such as Allegro non troppo (1976)—but there is plenty of evidence to indicate not only a high overall level of aesthetic beauty but also a rigorous quality in most of these films. They also generally bypass the distinction between rearguard and avant-garde by demonstrating that tradition does not necessarily mean lack of innovation. These thoughts came to mind while I was at the latest edition of...

Like Pixar, Disney continues pushing the envelope with its shorts program, and “Inner Workings” offers yet another innovation in hybrid animation and quirky narrative.

Director Leo Matsuda (story artist on the Oscar-winning “Big Hero 6” and “Wreck-It Ralph”) takes us inside the cartoony body of a hapless clerk named Paul, whose brain and heart engage in a tug-of-war that nearly tears him apart.

But unlike Pixar’s Oscar-winning “Inside Out,” the intent is purely physical, not cerebral. “I’m a Japanese Brazilian so I’m very disciplined, but I also like to party,” said Matsuda, who was inspired by the human anatomy illustrations from the “Encyclopedia Britannica” that he flipped through as a youth.

Matsuda recreated the graphical look of those layered acetate transparencies in his short along with an ’80s vibe that’s pushed and theatrical. His influences were Jacques Tati, Wes Anderson, Disney’s Ward Kimball and Bruno Bozzetto,...

Italy announced in Berlin during the Berlinale Film Fest a cooperation in Guadalajara at the upcoming 30th Ficg Film Festival March 6 - 15.

They will have an exhibition space in the important Market area with new Italian

films screening trailers, meeting spaces for attendees with Italian professionals present.

On March 10 there will be a presentation of the Italian system of support for audiovisual productions to the attending international professional audience.

'The Whale' a new international co production will participate in the 11th Coproduction Forum at Ficg.

Ivan Trujillo, Director Ficg, has personally selected an Italian film program at Ficg from over 150 films he screened. This selection covers the years 2012-2014 and consists of 33 films to be shown which represents the eclectic state of Italian film making today.

There are also planned complete retrospectives of the Italian cinema masters Bernardo Bertolucci and Bruno Bozzetto.

Both filmmakers will be in attendance at Ficg.

This photo is taken this past week in Berlin at the announcement of this important collaboration between Italy and Ficg at the upcoming Festival in Guadalajara - Ficg Film Festival March 6 - 15.

For more information on the festival visit Here...

OTTAWA -- Michaela Pavlatova's musical erotica fantasy The Carnival of Animals, Andreas Hykade's The Runt, George Griffin's deadpan comedy It Pains Me to Say This, and Run Wrake's adult fairy tale Rabbit are among the 106 films from 20 countries competing in the Ottawa International Animation Festival that organizers unveiled Wednesday at a media conference. Swedish animator Jonas Odell's "Never Like the First Time!" and Joanna Quinn's "Dreams and Desires: Family Ties," which picked up the top prize at both the Annecy and Zagreb animation festivals earlier this year, will also unspool in the competitive section with 16 categories, ranging from features to promotional animation to Internet works. The 30th anniversary edition of North America's largest and the world's second-biggest animation festival will also feature retrospectives of the works of Russian Konstantin Bronzit, former Warner Bros. cartoon director Bob Clampett, New York experimental animator Jeff Scher, Italian Bruno Bozzetto and Canadian John Straiton.

POSITANO, Italy -- The latest installments of "Tom & Jerry Tales" and "Arthur's Missing Pal" premiered Friday at the 10th annual Cartoons on the Bay Festival, a day when most of the attention was focused on Italian animation legend Bruno Bozzetto, who was given a lifetime achievement award. "Tom & Jerry Tales" was directed by Tony Cervone and produced by Cartoon Network. The feature, which includes a short in which Jerry is protected from Tom by a canine samurai warrior, will be distributed by Boomerang. Produced in Canada, "Arthur's Missing Pal", a 3D CG-animated film for small children, also was previewed Friday. The film, which has been subject to a series of delays, is part of a series of films originally created from Marc Brown's bedtime books about an aardvark who hated his nose.